In the Company of Men

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This is not, I repeat, NOT gay porn!

By IGN Staff

¿Boys meet girl, boys crush girl, boys giggle.¿ That¿s how writer/director Neil Labute sums up his film, In the Company of Men. A film so powerful that it was given an R rating for ¿emotional violence.¿ A film so powerful that, whether you like it or not, you¿ll never forget it.

The Movie

Chad (Aaron Eckhart) and Howard (Matt Malloy) are two businessmen who are transferred by their company, for six weeks, to help get a new office up and running. Chad is a good-looking, cocksure (no pun intended), man¿s man type and Howard, who is Chad¿s boss, is kind of a bumbling nerd. While discussing how they¿ve been screwed over by women, Chad comes up with a plan. Together they¿ll find some needy chick, shower her with attention, and then when she thinks she¿s in love, when she¿s at her most vulnerable; dump her. If you think that sounds harsh, the woman they pick is a deaf secretary named Christine (Stacy Edwards). I don't want to give away too much, but let¿s just say there's a lot of manipulation and double crossing going on and it¿s not until the last scene that you fully understand what¿s going on.

In the Company of Men won the 1997 Sundance Film Festival Filmmaker¿s Trophy and it¿s easy to see why. The characters are so well-written and slimy that after spending a couple of hours with Chad and Howard you may want to take a shower. Overall, this is one of the best written movies I¿ve seen in years. Every line, every action, seems to have underlying meaning and it¿s not until the end that the audience is able to piece it all together. The dialog will have you quoting lines for weeks and I guarantee you¿ll be telling the story of Chad and the intern at the water cooler the day after you see this movie. Stacy Edwards turns in an incredible performance. Until I listened to the commentary, I didn¿t know that she wasn¿t deaf. Her performance is that good. Eckhart and Malloy are also pretty good in their roles but the acting of some of the support cast is a little rough. Labute made this movie in eleven days for about $25,000, so it is a little rough around the edges, but I¿ve seen movies made for 25 million that couldn't hold a candle to this film. I think everyone needs to see In the Company of Men at least once.9 out of 10

The Video

This DVD gives you the choice of two aspect ratios: One side of the disk is in a 1.85:1 widescreen format while the other side is a full screen version. One problem with the video is that on the widescreen side there is a jitter on both the top and bottom edges of the screen. This isn¿t noticeable on the full screen side. Dust and scratches are also evident throughout the film. At the 1:00:31 mark, the frames of the film seem to be shifting over, like the projector was out of whack or something. Also, near that same time (1:00:44) a red, color bar flash crosses the screen. Luckily that scene is the exception and not the rule. The colors are muted but that¿s probably by design. The video is watchable but all the technical problems become distracting.5 out of 10

The Audio

A Dolby Digital Stereo 2.0 mix would usually be adequate for a film that is made up primarily of dialog. But the problem here is that many scenes are mixed too low. When the characters are speaking in low voices or whispering, you have to pump up the volume (unless you can read lips) to hear what they¿re saying. If that wasn¿t bad enough, the music is mixed too high, so there's no middle ground to set the volume at. In a movie that is dominated by dialog, you would think that the audio mix would concentrate on what people are saying. It doesn't.5 out of 10

The Extras

At first glance you may think you¿re getting ripped off. A filmmaker¿s commentary, a cast commentary, and a theatrical trailer doesn't sound like a lot. But, the commentary is so good that I actually laughed out loud a couple of times. The way they did the commentary is interesting and effective. They had someone asking questions while the film was rolling, so there are virtually no dead spots and the questions prompted the participants to talk about things they may not have mentioned otherwise. The stories are, in many ways, more interesting than most commentaries because they talk about making a film on virtually no budget. When you listen to the commentary, you¿ll be amazed that there's even a movie to comment about. It's quality over quantity in this case.6 out of 10

In the Company of Men is a must see. Unfortunately, because of sub-par audio and video, it¿s not necessarily a must buy. If you love the movie, you¿ll be able to overlook the technical glitches but if you¿re looking for a quality DVD, this ain¿t it.